Silhouette Special - changing string gauge & tremolo question

[floyd99]

Hi everyone,

I've just picked up my brand new MM Silhouette Special. WOW. I love it!!!!

I've got a couple of questions. Firstly, string gauge. Out of the box, it has 9's on it. I've always used 10's because to me 9's feel a little loose. Although after playing it for a while I got more used to it, but I would like to put 10's on to see how different things are, and I think I do prefer the feel of 10's.

Do many of you Silhouette owners change to 10's and if so what's the verdict?

Also, is there much involved in doing so? I've read a few posts mentioning filing the nut.. Do you think a truss rod adjustment would be at all required? I'm also assuming I'm going to need to adjust the tension of the tremolo. This leads me to my next question.

Out of the box, the tremolo is hard against the body of the guitar at resting. On my deluxe strat (which has a floating trem), the trem is still flat, but it floats above the body line to allow a very small amount of lateral movement upwards in pitch. This makes small vibrato much more fluid as you're not knocking the guitar with the trem.

When I adjust the claw to compensate for the string change, is it okay to adjust it so the trem is sitting slightly off the body? I realise this isn't a floating trem, so it means the trem will therefore be on a slight upward angle. Or will that cause me grief with tuning and other such..?

Thankyou in advance!
Dave.

 

[roburado]

You can set the trem to float. The Luke has the same trem, and it's set to float.

10s should be no problem. You might have to readjust the intonation and some combination of the neck relief, trem claw, and/or springs.

 

[fsmith]

I had 10's on mine at one time. I just had to adjust the trem claw a bit to bring it back down to the body. I didn't want a "floating" trem. You can adjust it so that it is floating. That's how Lukes without the piezo option come from the factory. I think it gives you about a step and a half up.

They work fine this way, but you'll have the same tuning issues as with any floating trem though.

I didn't have to do anything to the nut and didn't really have to do anything drastic to the truss rod. Maybe a small tweak just to keep the action where I like it.

fred

 

[floyd99]

Thanks for the quite reply roburado ;-)
When you say i can set it to float - do you just mean as I mentioned ? adjusting the tension of the claw a bit slack, such that it sits on a slight upward angle of a few degrees (so it's no longer flat as it is now)

 

[floyd99]

I had 10's on mine at one time. I just had to adjust the trem claw a bit to bring it back down to the body. I didn't want a "floating" trem. You can adjust it so that it is floating. That's how Lukes without the piezo option come from the factory. I think it gives you about a step and a half up.

They work fine this way, but you'll have the same tuning issues as with any floating trem though.

I didn't have to do anything to the nut and didn't really have to do anything drastic to the truss rod. Maybe a small tweak just to keep the action where I like it.

fred

thanks also fred. i don't need a step and a half... even half to one step would be plenty. Just enough such that when you're riding the tremolo on a note ever so gently that i have a little bit of play so it sounds fluid and i'm not hitting the deck at the normal pitched note, if you get my drift.

i'm not a dive bomber (maybe occasionally but rare!), so I doubt i'd have much in the way of tuning issues.

 

[fsmith]

The tuning issues I was talking about are when you tune one string it takes the rest out of tune and you have to keep going back until every string is settled in.

No problems abusing the trem, they really stay in tune. Norrin did a demo one time using his Petrucci and abusing the trem to see how well it stayed in tune.

 

[roburado]

Thanks for the quite reply roburado ;-)
When you say i can set it to float - do you just mean as I mentioned ? adjusting the tension of the claw a bit slack, such that it sits on a slight upward angle of a few degrees (so it's no longer flat as it is now)

I mean exactly that.

 

[floyd99]

Thanks heaps guys, greatly appreciated. I'll give it a go on the weekend.

 

[fsmith]

Oh yeah, how rude of me... welcome to the forum. Stick around it's a great place to hang...

 

[roburado]

Oh yeah. Welcome! BTW, any pictures of your guitar? If not, people here won't believe that it exists.

 

[fbecir]

Welcome aboard

No pics = no guitar.
From which part of the world are you from ???

 

[leftyguitarblue]

Welcome!!

Those guys gave you all the answers you need.

my 2 cents about the trem...


You won't have to worry about tuning with the vintage trem. I abuse mine on my Luke and rarely have to retune it. The Schaller's do wonders for tuning!

 

[candid_x]

I'd first swap out the strings, then see where everything sits. I doubt any major adjustments will be needed, maybe the trem/claw, if you still need it floating, but I'm guessing the nut will be fine, and if any truss adjustment is needed, I doubt it will be very much at all.

Welcome!

 

[floyd99]

thanks everyone for the welcome i'm from melbourne (yeah an Aussie!)

here you go, just took a couple of photo's -

 

[roburado]

Great looking guitar!

 

[leftyguitarblue]

Beautiful, can't wait to get mine! (sometime this month, hopefully!)

 

[floyd99]

Thanks guys, I've changed to 10's and didn't need to change much at all.

Had to screw the trem claw in a couple of turns to bring the trem back down to a decent level - i've got it sitting a few millimetres above the deck, so i can raise the pitch slightly as we discussed. No problems there.

There is a little fret buzz, but it's only noticeable acoustically, so i won't worry about that until i get the guitar set up by a professional.

I much prefer the tone of the 10's, much warmer.. but i must admit, I did prefer the feel of the 9's on the higher strings, I found I could play a little faster etc. The lower strings with 9's felt much too loose, and again, the tone when playing chords was too bright.

I'm thinking maybe the Hybrid set might be something worth trying. Opinions?

 

[Multiversal]

Thanks guys, I've changed to 10's and didn't need to change much at all.

Had to screw the trem claw in a couple of turns to bring the trem back down to a decent level - i've got it sitting a few millimetres above the deck, so i can raise the pitch slightly as we discussed. No problems there.

There is a little fret buzz, but it's only noticeable acoustically, so i won't worry about that until i get the guitar set up by a professional.

I much prefer the tone of the 10's, much warmer.. but i must admit, I did prefer the feel of the 9's on the higher strings, I found I could play a little faster etc. The lower strings with 9's felt much too loose, and again, the tone when playing chords was too bright.

I'm thinking maybe the Hybrid set might be something worth trying. Opinions?

Hybrid set sounds exactly like what you need, my friend.

Also.. to kill that fret buzz.. a small turn of the truss rod should do the trick.

 

[candid_x]

I like Hybrids lots.

 

[metal_terrorist]

Very nice. Reminds me of my own.